Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Lung check-up


Today was really long and i'm pretty tired. First I had a CT scan on my chest and abdomen to check my lungs, liver and spleen. Then I had to do a test to see if I breathe ok during and after exercising. 4 hours later I finally had my actual check-up with results.

Overall my lungs are where the doctors expect them to be. The medicines i'm on are limiting the amount of 'good inflammation' that increase healing, so everything will take much longer than it would if i wasn't on them.

The CT scan showed scarring from the spots that started to harden when i was on the ventilator and ECMO. Hopefully they'll continue to heal and soften. It's still hard to breathe big deep breaths sometimes and i get sharp pains too. They were still a little fuzzy in some spots. For those of you just following this is an improvement because i was told when i was on ECMO my lung xray was completely white and its supposed to be black to show air in them not fluid. My breathing test was good. They took my blood and measured the oxygen and co2 and then i exercised and they measured my breathing and heart rate continuously and then they took my blood again. I never needed oxygen help once-so that's good. My spleen is getting smaller, but is still enlarged and my liver is still enlarged. last time labs showed my liver function was okay though so we'll see next week after my labs come back.

The doctor said as long as I continue to do healthy things and don't get sick I shouldn't have to come back for a few months. So I wont have a lung doctor appointment until March of next year.

I also saw some familiar faces and met a new one. Maureen, who's having a baby next month, was one of my ICU nurses that took care of me when I was sleeping (medically sedated). She even donated blood directly to me with the program Amanda set up with the Red Cross when I needed several transfusions a day.It's pretty cool knowing these people worked so hard just to save me.

I'll have some bloodwork done Thursday to test my cell counts and see where I stand with the HLH. I won't have those results until next week. The Humira is helping my arthritis and I feel much less pain and almost normal, but weaker and slower.

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